Pirate Bay Is Blocked By Chrome, Firefox And Safari As ‘Phishing Risk’

Michael Moore joined TechWeek Europe in January 2014 as a trainee before graduating to Reporter later that year. He covers a wide range of topics, including but not limited to mobile devices, wearable tech, the Internet of Things, and financial technology.

Chrome, Safari and Firefox all now classify Pirate Bay as a ‘phishing site’ that could unleash malware onto users

The Pirate Bay is being automatically blocked by the Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari and Google Chrome browsers on the basis it is a phishing risk that could harm its users by hoarding malware.

The warning applied to ThePirateBay.se domain, although initial investigations have discovered that the block may not be a blanket one.

Deception

Users on Google’s Chrome browser attempting to access the site were confronted with a red-coloured page warning of accessing a “Deceptive site” (pictured right)/

TechWeekEurope was notified of the risk at the first attempt using Google Chrome, but subsequent visits were not blocked.

“Attackers on Thepiratebay.se may trick you into doing something dangerous like installing software or revealing your personal information,” the Chrome warning, delivered by Google’s Safe Browsing service reads.

The Pirate Bay could have fixed the issues that led it to be classified as ‘dangerous’ as it is deemed to be safe by Google. However the Google transparency page indicates that there were some safety issues as reported above.

Firefox users trying to access Pirate Bay may encounter a similar banner, branding The Pirate Bay as a “web forgery” which may trick users into sharing personal information. This may lead to identity theft or other fraud.

“Web forgeries are designed to trick you into revealing personal or financial information by imitating sources you may trust. Entering any information on this web page may result in identity theft or other fraud,” the browser warns.

TechWeekEurope has contacted Mozilla Firefox, Apple and Google for further information.

A similar warning was delivered to users attempting to access torrent-sharing site Kickass Torrents last October, as the technology industry tries to cut down on cybercrime. The Pirate Bay itself was only resurrected last February after being taken offline following a police raid in Sweden.